§791 — Title 31 Money and Finance | U.S. Code

Summary

The Comptroller General must set up and run a Center for Audit Excellence inside the Government Accountability Office. The Center will teach and help build auditing skills and promote good government by offering low-cost, useful, high-quality training, technical help, and related products and services to qualified people and groups in federal, state, local, tribal, and foreign governments, to international organizations, and to private organizations. The Comptroller General will decide who is eligible. The Comptroller General may charge fees for these services and must put those fees into the Center for Audit Excellence Account under section 792. The office may take gifts of property or services, including guest lecturers, unless accepting a gift would harm or appear to harm the GAO’s integrity. Congress expects the Center to be staffed mainly by GAO employees who are not already doing other GAO audit work so the Center won’t interfere with oversight.

Title 31, §791

Money and Finance — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Comptroller General shall establish, maintain, and operate a center within the Government Accountability Office to be known as the “Center for Audit Excellence” (hereafter in this subchapter referred to as the “Center”).

(b)(1)The Center shall build institutional auditing capacity and promote good governance by providing affordable, relevant, and high-quality training, technical assistance, and products and services to qualified personnel and entities of governments (including the Federal Government, State and local governments, tribal governments, and governments of foreign nations), international organizations, and other private organizations.

(2)Personnel and entities shall be considered qualified for purposes of receiving training, technical assistance, and products or services from the Center under paragraph (1) in accordance with such criteria as the Comptroller General may establish and publish.

(c)(1)The Comptroller General may establish, charge, and collect fees (on a reimbursable or advance basis) for the training, technical assistance, and products and services provided by the Center under this subchapter.

(2)The Comptroller General shall deposit all fees collected under paragraph (1) into the Center for Audit Excellence Account established under section 792.

(d)The Comptroller General may accept and use conditional or non-conditional gifts of property (both real and personal) and services (including services of guest lecturers) to support the operation of the Center, except that the Comptroller General may not accept or use such a gift if the Comptroller General determines that the acceptance or use of the gift would compromise or appear to compromise the integrity of the Government Accountability Office.

(e)It is the sense of Congress that the Center should be staffed primarily by personnel of the Government Accountability Office who are not otherwise engaged in carrying out other duties of the Office under this chapter, so as to ensure that the operation of the Center will not detract from or impact the oversight and audit work of the Office.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Approval of Business Plan Pub. L. 113–235, div. H, title I, § 1401(b), Dec. 16, 2014, 128 Stat. 2541, provided that: “The Comptroller General may not begin operating the Center for Audit Excellence under subchapter VII of chapter 7 of title 31, United States Code (as added by subsection (a)) until— “(1) the Comptroller General submits a business plan for the Center to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and Senate; and “(2) each such Committee approves the plan.”

§791 Center for Audit Excellence

Summary

Title 31, §791

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Citations & Metadata